On an e-journey with generation Y

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Preps, web2.0 and ICT

April 24, 2008 · 4 Comments

In our goal, with the support of our school leadership and teaching and learning team, to ‘lay the eplanks for a virtual classroom’, we are looking at the following elements of the conceptual age:-

  • connectivity
  • creativity
  • communicate

After speaking withTrish Butters, our current prep teacher, Trish was of the opinion (and I tend to agree with her), that there is little use for web2.0 in her classroom.  It is felt that preps (5 year olds) need to connect with each other and their teacher in this important formative year. Connections outside this realm would have no meaning or impact. 
 Despite, many of them going to Warrnambool to shop (a 30 minute trip), they still have no concept  of it being Warrnambool. If a map of the world was shown to them, it would have no meaning either. Even basic ICT and computer skill use is lacking. Some students still have had no exposure to a mouse or computers, and need to learn computer basics. So communication skills will be built upon within the classroom only.
This leaves creativity and my suggestion to Trish, that she might set up a class blog, where a collection of their activities, writings, art work could be stored online etc. Some interest was shown in this, but time is an important element. It would basically cover communication as well.
Any comments on this issue would be welcomed!!

 

Categories: getting staff on web2.0 · web2.0
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4 responses so far ↓

  • Grace Kat // April 24, 2008 at 12:39 pm

    Hi Anne, here is a Pre-K class’ use of voicethread
    http://mspatty.edublogs.org/2008/04/20/interactive-pre-k-news-april-14-2008/
    gkat

  • murcha // April 24, 2008 at 9:04 pm

    Although I personally love using VT, I had not even thought of that application for prep. What a great idea as they can all talk, but not all can read at this stage, so this is great for the ‘communication’ aspect. Thanks for drawing it to my attention. Is this from your school as I could not find where it was from? The accents seem very similar to ours as well. What a progressive prep teacher.
    Perhaps I shall have another chat with Trish and see about the possibilities of this one and its advantages in her classroom.

  • Bookjewel (Julie Squires) // April 24, 2008 at 9:32 pm

    I was also going to suggest voicethreads. We are about to start a project at my school; I figured this was a good way to ease students into the idea of world connectedness. Also, if the preps have buddies they could work on a project together. I am at a P-12 so I can experiment with all year levels.

  • Grace Kat // April 25, 2008 at 3:35 am

    Hi Anne,

    I’m glad to help in some way as I’m new at this and I take from all I follow on twitter, who have come so far in such a short time, that I’m glad to give something back.

    I clicked on Kim Cofino’s link to her blog post about the “Snowball Effect”.
    http://mscofino.edublogs.org/2008/04/24/the-snowball-effect/

    At the bottom of her post she had a list of the classrooms in which she works.
    This is the link I clicked Ms. Patty’s Pre-K Classroom

    Kindy can also add their thoughts about their friends’ pictures and in that way the kids can begin receiving connections from the students in their own class. I’m sure they’ll feel the excitement on receiving comments in this way.

    Regards,
    Grace (gkat)

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